Voters’ economic gloom worsens as tariff fears bite April 7, 2025 UK voters are increasingly downbeat about the economy as President Trump’s tariff announcements have further dampened Brits’ confidence, according to the latest Morning Wire/Freshwater Strategy poll. The global economy is still reeling from the President’s Rose Garden speech, where Trump announced sweeping tariffs on countries around the world, with markets nosediving across Asia and Europe [...]
UK services sector ‘driving force’ behind growth, BDO says April 7, 2025 The UK’s services sector is the “driving force” behind marginal growth gains, research by the consultancy BDO has suggested, as other sectors’ performance has become increasingly lacklustre. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to ease cost pressures on firms as her £25bn national insurance tax hikes, coming into effect this week, have weighed down on [...]
Tariff response: slash red tape and lure the non-doms back April 7, 2025 Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith on the five steps the government should now take A few years before he died, Henry Kissinger described Trump as “one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretences”. It [...]
Nearly half of UK companies say tax increase is impacting hiring April 6, 2025 Nearly half of all companies across the UK are scaling back hiring plans in response to an increase in employment taxes and labour costs. New research has found that 46 per cent of firms thought recruitment decisions would be impacted, with many reporting that they were already not hiring or postponing recruitment, according to Reed. “Everyone understands that [...]
Reeves’ £25bn national insurance tax raid has arrived. What happens now? April 6, 2025 Sorry, Lionel Richie. Businesses aren’t feeling easy like a Sunday morning. The new tax year is here. And Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £25bn national insurance tax raid has fallen on thousands of firms. From today, employers will pay a tax rate of 15 per cent on salaries above £5,000, down from £9,100 previously. This secondary threshold [...]
Scrapping non-doms could cost UK up to £111bn by 2035, ASI think tank claims April 5, 2025 Scrapping the non-doms tax status could cost the UK up to £111bn by 2035, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) is warning. The UK could also lose some 44,000 jobs by 2030 if the government enacts its plans to abolish the scheme, the free-market group has suggested. These figures are based on just over half [11,050] [...]
Jaguar Land Rover to ‘pause’ US shipments in wake of tariffs April 5, 2025 Jaguar Land Rover has said it will “pause” shipments to the US as it works to “address the new trading terms” of Donald Trump’s tariffs. A 25 per cent levy on all foreign cars imported into America came into force on Thursday, and a wider “baseline” 10 per cent tariff on goods imported from around [...]
Global markets nose-dive as Trump’s tariff on UK products comes into effect April 5, 2025 Donald Trump’s 10 per cent tariff on UK products has officially come into force, with global stock markets plunging deeper into the red in response to the imposition of import taxes. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to spend the weekend speaking to foreign leaders about the tariffs, after calls with the prime ministers [...]
Number 10 slaps down David Lammy ‘protectionism’ comments as tariff shockwaves continue April 4, 2025 Downing Street has distanced itself from comments made by the foreign secretary, who told reporters on Friday that he regrets “the return of protectionism in the United States.” David Lammy said that Britain is “a nation that believes in open trade” and that these curbs on trade are “something we’ve not seen for nearly a [...]
UK retailers respond to Trump tariffs: ‘The timing couldn’t be worse’ April 4, 2025 Retail bodies and tax advisers have warned that Trump’s tariffs come at a dire time for UK retail, saying price rises are “inevitable”. US President Donald Trump announced a 10 per cent tariff on goods from the UK on 2 April, and a range of higher tariffs on many of the countries retailers manufacture goods [...]